Gaming & Culture —

Battlefield 2 getting serious about voice chat

The popular online shooter gives away headsets to further the cause.

If you've been reading my reviews (and if you haven't, shame on you) you know I'm a huge supporter of a more integrated voice chat solution for PC games. With Xbox LIVE supporting voice chat in all games not having a like system in place for big online PC games is a crime. So far only a handful of games support voice chat out of the box, with most relying on the players using programs like TeamSpeak and Roger Wilco.

Battlefield as a franchise almost demands chat for a good team experience, and to that end EA is giving away Logitech headsets to preorder customers at most major video game retailers. The game will support voice chat out of the box, and with this preorder program no one has an excuse to not have a headset. After playing many, many rounds of the first Battlefield games with a headset using Teamspeak this is long overdue and very welcome. The more developers and publishers who get behind voice chat the better for PC gaming.